March 19, 2012

THE UNACCEPTABLE SITUATION CONCERNING THE REGISTRATION OF ASYLUM
APPLICATIONS CONTINUES

The Group of Lawyers for the Rights
of Migrants and Refugees together with AITIMA, the Greek Council for Refugees,
the Ecumenical Refugee Program and the Greek Section of Amnesty International
co-signing the present press release, and in co-operation with other entities,
groups and NGOs, have been carrying out
over the last month repeated protests, by giving their presence every
Friday to Saturday morning (on 17 February, 24 February, 2 March and 9 March
2012) outside the building of the Attica Aliens Directorate.

(Attached are the call to protest
and the list of organisation that have been responding positively to this call
)

The purpose of this
protest has been to denounce the situation being faced by persons in need of
international protection who try to seek asylum in Attica, as well those who
have been referred to Attica from other Greek cities, after the illegal refusal
of local authorities to register their asylum applications.

The police
authorities - following the usual practice of the past years - refuse to register the asylum claims of
those seeking protection and only agree to register an exceptionally small
number of applications and only during the early hours of Saturday mornings.

During our protests in the course of
the past weeks, we found that the current practice of registering asylum
applications, namely the subjection of humans to the tortuous waiting along the
side of the street for 2-3 days and nights in a row, under deplorable
circumstances so that they MAYBE have a small chance of registering their
claims, renders access to the asylum process almost IMPOSSIBLE in Attica.

In addition, we observed that the
responsible authorities not only do nothing to ease the physical and mental
exhaustion caused by the inhuman and degrading torment to which asylum seekers
are being subjected, but on the contrary
they follow specific practices which aim to discourage asylum seekers from submitting
their claims and bar access to vulnerable groups, such as women and
unaccompanied minors.

In particular, during our presence
there as well as from the interviews we conducted with the asylum seekers, we
reached following findings:

1.The
majority of asylum seekers who wait in line to submit their application, start
gathering at a sidestreet in the proximity of the Attica Aliens Directorate
already from Wednesday to Thursday morning, in the hope of securing one of the
front places in the line and maybe increasing their luck of having their
application registered. The police uses however various techniques to make them
go away and discourage them. In particular, as reported to the representatives
of demonstrating entities, between Thursday evening and Friday morning the
police often chases the asylum seekers away, even with the use of force
(globs). Many applicants get discouraged and give up in the meantime their
effort to have their application registered. We were also reported that on the
evening of Thursday, 1 March 2012, the police resorted to the use of chemicals
(teargas) in order to disperse the number of asylum seekers who had already
gathered.

2.Τhe
most vulnerable groups, like women and unaccompanied minors, not only do not
enjoy the special protection they are entitled to, but are prevented in the most inhuman manner from accessing the asylum
process. In particular, the police authorities force women occupying the
“first seats” within the line to leave the queue. Out of the approximately 20
women who came in the course of the past 4 weeks to submit an application, only
a very small number succeeded. It should be noted that even women are subjected
to the tortuous waiting of 2-3 days and nights in a row and are exposed to the
same deplorable conditions as the rest. It is of particular concern to us, that
they are forced to wait within a crowd of men, while the authorities take no
particular measure of care and protection about their situation.

3.During
our repeated presence there, we registered approximately 10 unaccompanied
minors, who were obliged to wait at least 2 days and nights consecutively,
among adults, exposed to the very bad weather conditions, and without access to
water, food or toilet. On one occasion, during the morning hours of 18 February
2012, and following our persistent protests that unaccompanied minors are
entitled to unrestricted access to the asylum process, the officer in charge
agreed to allow to three minors entry to the building, in order to register
their applications. To our surprise however, we were subsequently informed that despite all the hardship they had
gone through, they were eventually dismissed by the officer, without having
their applications registered, on the pretext that they were adults or
because they came from Pakistan!

In addition, we were told that when
one of the minors tried to bring food and water to the others, he was stopped
by the guard who did not allow him to pass on these provisions and ordered him
to either throw away the food and water or return the products to where he had
gotten them from. In other words, not
only do the Greek authorities subject vulnerable children to all this hardship,
but they even actively forbid them to have food and water throughout the time
that they have to wait in the line. They thereby inflict on them an inhuman
treatment which aggravates their already vulnerable situation.

A similar degrading treatment was
also given to three other unaccompanied minors, who after persistent protests
of the attending organisations managed to enter the Aliens Directorate on 10
March 2012. According to the witness statements provided by the minors
subsequently, the responsible officer made the children wait for many hours
before registering their applications, and even subjected them to manipulative
questions and threats, such as that he will only issue papers to them if they
agree to register as adults. There was thus an obvious intention to discourage them from submitting their claims until
the every last minute.

4.The
practice of making asylum seekers “go away” once the police officers have
selected 20 applications for registration - either the first 20 ones in line or
through random selection with unclear criteria - constitutes by itself an additional form of degrading treatment. The
police officers shout in Greek at the exhausted and disappointed asylum
seekers, many of whom have been going through this procedure every week for
many months or even years, the phrase: “Go away now, next week”, while clapping
their hands rhythmically and pushing back those who are left behind, both
asylum seekers and us who solidarise with them. No explanation and no response
is provided by the authorities to any of those who are present there.

The refusal of the Greek authorities
to register asylum applications and the treatment they have in store for asylum
seekers, which is an insult to human dignity by all means, do not constitute
some new practice, nor are they a result of administrative malfunctions or the
economic crisis. On the contrary, they form part of a systematic policy, which
has been going on for years, the primary purpose of which is to deliberately
discourage asylum seekers from submitting their application in Greece. It forms
part of the wider policy of the Greek authorities towards migrants and
refugees, which is characterised by deportations of persons who are in danger
in their country of origin, overnight conduction of asylum interviews, denial
of reception conditions, lengthy detention under inhuman conditions etc, which
have been repeatedly denounced by
entities and organisation both in Greece and abroad, and have led to the
condemnation of Greece by international bodies.

WE HEREBY SHOW OUR SOLIDARITY to all those who were forced to flee from their
countries because their life, freedom or dignity were in danger, due to State
oppression, war or poverty.

WE HEREBY CONTINUE TO DEMAND

- Unobstructed access to the asylum
procedure every day and without mediators

-Refuge and social protection to persons entitled to international protection

- An end to the unacceptable situation imposed by the authorities every
day and every Saturday morning at Petrou Ralli.

WE ARE GOING TO BE THERE UNTIL EVERY SINGLE PERSON IS ABLE TO SEEK AND RECEIVE
THE PROTECTION THAT HE OR SHE IS ENTITLED TO

WE INVITE ALL THOSE WISH TO SHOW
THEIR SOLIDARITY, EVERY SATURDAY FROM 05:00 TO 06:00 AM ON SATURDAY MORNING AT
PETROU RALLI !!